Tower Shell by Hannah Brockbank



Hannah Brockbank is published in a variety of journals, magazines and anthologies including: When Women Waken journal; The London Magazine; Envoi; Sarasvati; and Raving Beauties (ed.); Hallelujah for 50ft Women anthology (Bloodaxe); Chalk Poets anthology (Winchester Poetry Festival 2016). Her debut pamphlet, Bloodlines, is published by Indigo Dreams Publishing. She is studying for a Ph.D in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester.





Tower Shell


Despite how I try to answer

every one of your questions,

there is no solid answer for this,

only a slow exhuming of a shell

buried just under the surface

next to the brittle stars, distorted

by the continual flow of water.


One day, when I am gone,

my structure emptied of flesh,

chamber after echoing chamber, tapered

to an inevitable end, you may find me

peeping from the sea bed,

and will discover that what remains

in your hands is still beautiful.


Hannah Brockbank